Changing course or changing clothes? Reflections on the ideological evolution of the British National Party 1999-2006

Patterns of Prejudice

Volumn 41, Issue 1, 2007, Pages 61-82

  Copsey, Nigel ^a  

^a TEESSIDE UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

British National Party; Fascism; John Tyndall; National Front; National populism; Neo fascism; Nick Griffin; Popular nationalism

Indexed keywords

EID: 33847011061     PISSN: 0031322X     EISSN: 14617331     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00313220601118777     Document Type: Review

References (92)

1. On Nick Griffin and the modernization of the BNP, see Nigel Copsey, Contemporary British Fascism: The British National Party and the Quest for Legitimacy (Basingstoke: Palgrave 2004), 100-23,
2. and Roger Eatwell, 'The extreme right in Britain: the long road to "modernization"', in Roger Eatwell and Cas Mudde (eds), Western Democracies and the New Extreme Right Challenge (London: Routledge 2004), 62-79.
3. Nick Griffin, 'Where do we go from here?', Identity, no. 45, June 2004, 7. In truth, it was more a case of Griffin rebuilding these foundations; the BNP already had ideological foundations in the form of Tyndall's variant of National Socialism.
4. On the ideology of Tyndall's BNP, see Copsey, Contemporary British Fascism, 75-99.
5. John Tyndall died of a suspected heart attack on 19 July 2005. His political career on Britain's extreme right started with the 1950s League of Empire Loyalists, followed by the National Labour Party, the 1960s incarnation of the BNP, the National Socialist Movement, the Greater Britain Movement and then the National Front. Tyndall was chairman of the National Front twice during the 1970s. On Tyndall from the League of Empire Loyalists to the founding of the BNP in 1982, see Copsey, Contemporary British Fascism, 5-27.
6. See Griffin's interview with Derek Turner, 'Hearing the BNP's side', Right Now!, March-April 2005, 4-5.
7. See Nick Griffin, 'Manifesto launch-just the beginning', Identity, no. 55, June 2005, 7.
8. See comments by John Morse in Spearhead, September 1999,
9. quoted in The Griffin File (Leeds: Imperium Press 2005), available online at www.aryanunity.com/WNP/griffinfile.html (viewed 10 November 2006).
10. Comments originally made in the e-mail newsletter (no. 981) of the International Third Position, reproduced in full in Spearhead, no. 367, September 1999, 12-13.
11. For further details of the inconsistencies in Griffin's political career, see also The Griffin File.
12. See Griffin, 'Manifesto launch', 6.
13. Richard Griffiths, Fascism (London: Continuum 2005), 1.
14. See Roger Griffin, 'Fascism's new faces (and new facelessness) in the "post-fascist epoch"', in Roger Griffin, Werner Loh and Andreas Umland (eds), Fascism Past and Present, West and East: An International Debate on Concepts and Cases in the Comparative Study of the Extreme Right (Stuttgart: ibidem-Verlag 2006), esp. 38-9.
15. A. James Gregor, for instance, who recently claimed that he saw 'no evidence that there is any kind of real or emerging consensus about the interpretation of fascism among anglophone scholars-or, for that matter, among the students of fascism anywhere'; A. James Gregor, 'Roger Griffin, social science, "fascism" and the "extreme right"', in Griffin, Loh and Umland (eds), Fascism Past and Present, 119.
16. See Roger Griffin, 'Introduction: God's counterfeiters? Investigating the triad of fascism, totalitarianism and (political) religion', in Roger Griffin (ed.), Fascism, Totalitarianism and Political Religion (London: Routledge 2005), 9.
17. See Roger Griffin, The Nature of Fascism (London: Pinter 1991).
18. Griffin has revealed that he first came across the word 'palingenesis' in the title of a book published in 1833, La Palingénésie sociale, by utopian socialist Pierre-Simon Ballanches.
19. See contributions by David Baker, Roger Eatwell and Stanley Payne in Griffin, Loh and Umland (eds), Fascism Past and Present.
20. Griffin cites this author along with David Baker, Tom Linehan, Mark Antliff, Emily Braun, Andreas Umland and Aristotle Kallis, in Griffin, Loh and Umland (eds), Fascism Past and Present, 257.
21. See, for instance, Hans-Georg Betz, Radical Right-Wing Populism in Western Europe (London: Macmillan 1994)
22. and Jens Rydgren (ed.), Movements of Exclusion: Radical Right-Wing Populism in the Western World (New York: Nova Science Publishers 2005).
23. Kevin Passmore, Fascism: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2002), 90.
24. For a fuller discussion of terminology, see Roger Eatwell, 'Introduction: the new extreme challenge', in Eatwell and Mudde (eds), Western Democracies and the New Extreme Right Challenge, 1-16.
25. A. James Gregor, The Search for Neofascism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2006), 28.
26. For a useful typology of neo-fascism, see Griffin, The Nature of Fascism, 166-9.
27. See, for instance, 'Propaganda and public appeal', Appendix, BNP Activists' Handbook, n.d. [1994?].
28. For Anti-Fascist Action, see Dave Hann and Steve Tilzey, No Retreat. The Secret War between Britain's Anti-Fascists and the Far Right (Lytham, Lancs: Milo Books 2003).
29. On the BNP's 1993 election victory in Millwall, see Copsey, Contemporary British Fascism, 51-64;
30. Roger Eatwell, 'The dynamics of right-wing electoral breakthrough', Patterns of Prejudice, vol. 32, no. 3, 1998, 3-31;
31. and Christopher T. Husbands, 'Following the "continental model"?: implications of the recent electoral emergence of the British National Party', New Community, vol. 20, no. 4, 1994, 563-79.
32. As Director of Group Development, Tony Lecomber became Griffin's right-hand man in the BNP. Although widely seen as a 'modernizer', in early 2006 Lecomber was sacked when it was revealed to Griffin that he had allegedly attempted to recruit a Merseyside gangster in a plot to assassinate establishment figures. Lecomber was found guilty by the party of 'making a serious error of judgement in speaking to a non-member about matters which could be misconstrued and which could thereby possibly have caused embarrassment to the party'; see Nick Lowles, 'J'accuse. Gangland hitman points finger at BNP', Searchlight, no. 371, May 2006, 5.
33. Nick Griffin, 'Editorial', The Rune, no. 11, n.d. [1995?], emphasis in bold in the original.
34. For a fuller discussion of Griffin's conversion to 'modernization', see Copsey, Contemporary British Fascism, 73. One key factor was the influential role played by Mark Deavin, a former research student of the founder of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), Dr Alan Sked. Deavin soon disappeared from the right-extremist scene but during the late 1990s was a close associate of Griffin and supported the 'modernizing' agenda.
35. Although Tyndall claimed to have never trusted Griffin; see John Tyndall, 'The Problem is Mr Griffin', Spearhead, October 2003, available online at www.spearhead.com/0310-jt2.html, (viewed 10 November 2006): 'But I have to say that I never saw Mr Griffin as the right person. From the very start there was something about him that inspired doubt. On this, my wife was far more emphatic. She has met nearly all my main political associates over the years, and I have never known her to be wrong in her personal assessment of a single one of them.'
36. Tyndall, 'The Problem is Mr Griffin'.
37. In September 1999, on an 80 per cent turn-out, Nick Griffin won 1,082 votes cast in a postal ballot of the party's membership. John Tyndall received only 411 votes.
38. Nick Griffin, 'BNP-Freedom Party!', Patriot, no. 4, Spring 1999, 4.
39. Robert Bennett, BNP co-ordinator in Oldham in 2002, was exposed as a convicted gang rapist; Joe Owens, a BNP organizer in Liverpool in 2004, was exposed as a violent criminal with gangland connections. It was Owens who Lecomber supposedly approached regarding 'taking out' establishment figures. Owens is the subject of Graham Johnson's book The Nazi Assassin (Edinburgh: Mainstream 2006).
40. Griffin, 'BNP-Freedom Party!', 7.
41. Ibid.
42. On the BNP and the Internet, see Nigel Copsey, 'Extremism on the Net: the extreme right and the value of the Internet', in Rachel Gibson, Paul Nixon and Stephen Ward (eds), Political Parties and the Internet: Net Gain? (London: Routledge 2003), 218-33.
43. Tyndall, 'The problem is Mr Griffin'.
44. Burnley is one example. See Steven Smith, How It Was Done. The Rise of Burnley BNP: The Inside Story (Burnley: Cliviger Press 2004).
45. Nick Griffin, 'At the crossroads', Identity, no. 34, July 2003, 4-7.
46. On the radical ideology of the 1980s NF, see Roger Eatwell, 'The esoteric ideology of the National Front in the 1980s', in Mike Cronin (ed.), The Failure of British Fascism: The Far Right and the Fight for Political Recognition (London: Macmillan 1996), 99-117,
47. and, for a discussion of Third Positionism in Britain, see Graham D. Macklin, 'Co-opting the counter culture: Troy Southgate and the National Revolutionary Faction', Patterns of Prejudice, vol. 39, no. 3, 2005, 301-26.
48. Griffin, 'At the crossroads'.
49. Dave Hannam, 'Race anthrop-biology: racist myth or racial fact?', Identity, no. 39, December 2003, 14-15.
50. For an informative analysis of the BNP and the 2004 elections, see David Renton, '"A day to make history"? The 2004 elections and the British National Party', Patterns of Prejudice, vol. 39, no. 1, 2005, 25-45.
51. Nick Griffin, 'The great debate-the end of the road', Identity, no. 46, August 2004, 4-7.
52. Griffin, 'Where do we go from here?', 7.
53. Nick Griffin, 'Closing a dangerous gap', Identity, no. 50, December 2004, 4.
54. The trial was held between 16 January 2006 and 2 February 2006 at Leeds Crown Court. Nick Griffin and party activist Mark Collett were acquitted on some of the charges that they incited racial hatred. The defence claimed that the target of the speeches was not race but religion, and could not be considered illegal under current laws. Griffin and Collett faced a retrial in November 2006 and were, once again, acquitted.
55. Griffin, 'Closing a dangerous gap', 5.
56. Ibid., 6.
57. Many BNP councillors have remained silent during key budget debates and some have even voted for budgets against their own pre-election promises; see Nick Lowles, 'The sorry tale of the "do-nothing" councillors', Searchlight, no. 358, April 2005, 10-11.
58. Griffin, 'Closing a dangerous gap', 6.
59. Within two days of the Secret Agent broadcast, Barclays Bank announced that it was closing the BNP's bank accounts. This was followed by the HSBC, which closed down a number of BNP bank accounts in October 2004. A number of BNP members have been expelled from trade unions: Jay Lee from the railworkers' union ASLEF, for instance, and John Walker and Dave Jones from the TGWU.
60. Griffin, 'Manifesto launch', 6.
61. Rebuilding British Democracy. British National Party General Election 2005 Manifesto (Welshpool, Powys: BNP 2005), 19.
62. John Tyndall, 'Too many wrong messages', Spearhead, June 2005, available online at www.spearhead.com/0506-jt4.html (viewed 10 November 2006).
63. See Anthony D. Smith, National Identity (London: Penguin 1991), 30.
64. Rebuilding British Democracy, 20.
65. Tyndall, 'Too many wrong messages'.
66. Griffin, 'Manifesto launch', 7.
67. Ibid.
68. Brian Wheeler, 'BNP's "secret" manifesto launch', BBC News, 24 April 2005, available online at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/ uk_politics/vote_2005/frontpage/4477193.stm (viewed 10 November 2006).
69. Rebuilding British Democracy, 9.
70. Ibid., 21
71. Paul Flavelle, 'The hidden hand', Identity, no. 51, January 2005, 14-15.
72. A. K. Chesterton's classic conspiratorial text is The New Unhappy Lords (London: Candour 1965), see 189-98 for his 'exposure' of the Bilderberg Group.
73. Chesterton was a former propaganda officer of the British Union of Fascists, founder of the League of Empire Loyalists and the first chairman of the National Front. On A. K. Chesterton, see David Baker, Ideology of Obsession: A. K. Chesterton and British Fascism (London: I. B. Tauris 1996).
74. See Peter John, Helen Margetts, David Rowland and Stuart Weir, The British National Party: The Roots of Its Appeal (Colchester: Democratic Audit of the United Kingdom, University of Essex 2006), 11-12.
75. Nick Griffin, 'Our fight in the culture clash', Identity, no. 64, March 2006, 8.
76. See Constitution of the British National Party, 8th edn (Waltham Cross, Herts: BNP November 2004), 3-4.
77. The Constitution of the BNP states that membership of the party is only open to those whose ethnic origin is listed in Section 2, that is to say, 'Indigenous Caucasian', including 'i) The Anglo-Saxon Folk Community; ii) The Celtic Scottish Folk Community; iii) The Scots-Northern Irish Folk Community; iv) The Celtic Welsh Folk Community; v) The Celtic Irish Folk Community; vi) The Celtic Cornish Folk Community; vii) The Anglo-Saxon-Celtic Folk Community; viii) The Celtic-Norse Folk Community; ix) The Anglo-Saxon-Norse Folk Community; x) The Anglo-Saxon-Indigenous European Folk Community; xi) Members of these ethnic groups who reside either within or outside Europe but ethnically derive from them' (Constitution, 4). Yet the BNP has within its ranks Lawrence Rustem, a half-Turkish BNP councillor in Barking and Dagenham, Pat Richardson (née Feldman), a Jewish BNP councillor in Epping Forest and Sharif Gawad, a Greek-Armenian, who stood as a BNP candidate in Bradford at the 2006 local elections.
78. Nick Griffin, 'Modern nationalism-the new force in politics', Identity, no. 66, May 2006, 6.
79. Lee Barnes, 'Blake and the vision of Albion', Identity, no. 54, April 2005, 8-9.
80. Nick Griffin, 'It is more than a popular protest-it's a revolution in thought', Identity, no. 35, August 2003, 6.
81. Quoted in Steve Blake, 'Two parties, one passion', Identity, no. 44, May 2004, 7.
82. Passmore, Fascism, 107.
83. Those dissidents who formed the White Nationalist Party (WNP), for instance. The WNP was founded in 2002 as a splinter group from the BNP. It later joined forces with the Nationalist Alliance, which was established in February 2005 and led by former National Front and BNP member Eddy Morrison.
84. Griffin, 'BNP-Freedom Party!', 4, emphasis in bold in the original.
85. Griffin, 'Modern nationalism', 4.
86. The figure of 33 includes the BNP candidate Sharon Ebanks who stood for election in the Kingstanding ward of Birmingham. Following a recount, in July 2006 it was announced that she had been incorrectly declared as one of two candidates elected.
87. 'May '06 electoral breakthrough', Identity, no. 66, May 2006, 9-11.
88. For a useful summary of the 2006 local elections, see '2006 local elections analysis', Searchlight, no. 372, June 2006, 4-7.
89. See John et al., The British National Party, 28.
90. On Barking and Dagenham, see John Cruddas, Peter John, Nick Lowles, Helen Margetts, David Rowland, David Schutt and Stuart Weir, The Far Right in London: A Challenge for Local Democracy? (York: The Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust 2005);
91. on Burnley, see Greg Deacon, Ahmed Keita and Ken Ritchie, Burnley and the BNP and the Case for Electoral Reform (London: Electoral Reform Society 2004).
92. See John Bean, 'John Bean's nationalist notebook', Identity, no. 69, August 2006, 20.